Mohamed Magid – Gratitude and Happiness
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All praise
the best of praise due to Allah
the creator, the sustainer of the universe.
And peace and blessed be upon our beloved
prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, I seek
refuge from the sin of the thought and
the sin of the tongue.
I started
last Friday talking about series of regarding
the issue of happiness,
And I spoke of one of the ingredients
of this
recipe of happiness,
last Jum'ah.
In this Jum'ah, we're talking about other aspect
of how to pursue happiness.
The virtue that we are talking about today
is gratitude.
I talked about tawakkul,
reliance of god and on god almighty, Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala, last jum'ah. And this jum'ah,
I will talk about gratitude.
Gratitude,
shukr,
is one of the most important aspect of
the happiness of the person in this life
and life to come.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
connected gratitude
or being aware of him, being conscious of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Because the greater gratitude a person can have
is when he or she
become aware
of the bounties
and the favors of Allah upon them.
And that's why when a person in that
state of gratitude,
he or she that instead of dhikr, remembrance
of Allah.
And Allah says in the Quran,
Quran, Be
mindful of me. Remember me, I will remember
you,
and be grateful to me.
And therefore, a zikr been mentioned first and
then shukr mentioned after.
But shukr
gratitude
is a result of being mindful of Allah
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala also says in
the Quran
Allah
says in the Quran
that your lord, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
if you become grateful,
have gratitude,
been thankful to me, Allah just said,
I will increase my bounty upon you.
If you become ungrateful
for
my punishment is severe.
Let us
talk about the first two things that I
mentioned, which is the and
being thankful
that Allah will increase,
Allah will give us more.
The best example
you can have
in how gratitude been applied in life
is the life of prophet Muhammad
He
has supplication and dua
for every movement
and every move
that he makes.
He has dua when he get up in
the morning, dua when, you know, finishes wabu.
Dua when he drink water. Dua
when he enter his home. Dua when he
leaves his home. Dua when he enter the
market, dua
when he go to sleep, every aspect of
his life, dua go into the restaurant, dua
live in the restroom.
You ask yourself why?
Why there's so
many duas, supplication, and prayer problem
made in every aspect of his life.
The interpretation of that is desire
that he loved this verse.
In every move we make in our life,
it is not possible without Allah
No matter how much fluent we become, how
much prestige you may have, how much money
you may have, anything that Allah give us,
everything we have in this life,
because Allah made it possible.
And therefore, one of the advice I'm gonna
give myself and I'll give it to you
today,
I would like you and I to learn
the supplication.
The supplication of leaving the home, supplication coming
back to home, supplication going to bed, supplication
woke up in the morning.
Why is that? You'd make our life meaningful.
Make us alert
of Allah present.
That's what was.
Everything of his life with and
also
he lived another verse.
He lived all the Quran, but I'm saying
I'm talking about gratitude.
Allah says
Because
each one will take care of the other.
Allah says,
oh, glory be to Allah, that will create
this vast beautiful universe.
This beautiful
universe,
the
moon.
He made the rotation of the day and
the night.
He said, I created the world. I created
the universe
so that people can become grateful
or become mindful of me.
Everything in the universe
is the reminder person of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
If Rasulullah
alaihi wa sallam not only he made dhikr
in his every movement he made, but he
made dhikr in everything he have seen.
Everything in the world remind him of Allah
When a person have that kind of attitude,
life become more meaningful. A person can live
their life and become enjoying it and seeing
it
and connecting the dots of it. For Sallallahu
Alaihi wa Sallam, he will see the moon
that I just mentioned in this ayah of
the Surat Al Furqan.
When he see the moon at night
he talked to the moon.
He said to the moon,
my Lord and your Lord is Allah.
When he see the crescent the crescent, the
Hilal,
he said,
oh Allah, bring this bring this crescent in
this new moon,
the sign of security, prosperity,
iman,
intact,
because the moon is a sign of a
month.
What does he do, salallahu alaihi wa sallam,
when he rise in the morning?
Say, oh Allah, I asked you the best
of this day.
I seek protection from any evil that might
come this day, Allah,
because the rising of the sun is the
beginning of the day.
He says
Oh Allah, the night has gone, the morning
has begun,
and the voice of the supplicants
have been raised, oh Allah forgive me.
And he does that as the sunset.
Oh, Allah, this is the end of the
day
and the beginning of the night,
and there's
voice of the supplicant.
That's how a Muslim
sees life.
Everything of it is reminding of Allah
Not only that
will see a dead element remind him of
Allah.
The world is a place of,
the place of,
gratitude.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the Quran
connect
the sustenance
that he provide for us, food,
with the issue of shukr.
He says,
Allah says, part of the shukr is you
and I seek
halal sustenance, halal provision.
If a person seek haram, he's not a
shaker, he's not a person of gratitude.
Therefore, part of the happiness of the war,
a person,
he is he or she seek
the halal of payib
that was pure and halal.
But Allah says,
and thank Allah for his name, name of
Allah.
If you really worship in Allah,
not the
money. If you worship Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
then we seek halal payer,
and then
we become grateful
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for every aspect
of the rizq he gave us.
And my brothers and sisters,
the most important aspect of sugar
is our senses,
the senses, a lot of us,
the eyes,
the hearing,
the tongue,
the mind,
the heart.
Allah says in the
Allah is he
who give you the
the faculty of hearing.
Well, Absar
site.
Well, Afida place of conscious.
Kalila matters Quran.
I would like you to look this carefully.
Matters
very little time that you become grateful to
me
Because you and I, my brothers and sister,
we take thing for granted.
And one of the means of happiness
is to become aware of Allah
Because you and I will complain about a
lot of things.
I don't have this, I don't have that,
I don't have this, I don't have that.
Allah says
I give you 2 eyes. I give you
a tongue. I give you a brain. I
give you a heart. I give you legs.
And he told me I didn't give you
enough?
I give you oxygen. I give you water
to drink. You tell me I don't give
you enough? I give you iman, I give
you Islam, you tell me you didn't give
enough? No. You complain about me, I say.
Are you complaining that I have not been
good to you?
Subhanallah.
Allah says, if you won't count my favor
upon you, you will not be able to
do so.
A person become
unfair, unjust,
and grateful to Allah
For my brothers and sister, the question is
this,
what are the issues
that become between us and gratitude?
1 is rafla, not be mindful of the
niyam.
And that's why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala remind
us in the Quran
of his
so we become alert.
And he
said,
do you know do you see the water
that you drink?
Allah said, don't take it for granted.
Are you the one human being,
produce water from the heaven, from the sky
or from the
ground. Alright?
If I take this water from you human
being, what are you gonna do with the
money I you have and the prestige and
the army and everything you have? What are
you gonna do if you take the water
out?
You would die.
Simple things, water.
I would have moved this water for you,
cannot be able to swallow, Allah says.
He said, why is Allah being grateful to
me?
Why are you complaining about other things?
The sip of the water you have,
I allow the water to be here, and
I made it sweet, and I made you
a tongue to enjoy it, and I made
you be able to swallow.
Allah says so.
Simple as that brother and sister.
If you you and I live this Jummah
today,
and the next sip of water we say,
somehow, I can feel the water.
I can feel it. I want to thank
Allah for it. You know, you become very
happy
with the sip of water.
Only the sip of water.
Many people around the world,
they have problem with water. We're just talking
to the president,
visit us to the president of Somalia
where we
need to have wells
in place with a drought
or west of Sudan or places where the
people need water.
Don't take it for God my brothers and
sisters, we should not take it for God.
And therefore, we use our senses
to enjoy what Allah have provided,
but also become aware of it.
Read Surat Al Rahman.
Which favor of your lord would you deny?
Which favor of your lord will you deny?
That's
a test for you and I after we
leave this jama'ah, how we become a let
of the aware of the gratitude, have the
gratitude of the niyam of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says human being are too divided to 2,
either grateful or ungrateful.
You and I,
if you would like to earn
the title of being grateful to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala,
then we need to ask ourselves,
what is the manifestation of this gratitude?
Said Aisha
has said
gratitude of the eyes and the ears
not to use them in haram, don't look
at anything haram,
not to hear reba, namima, backbiting. Don't listen
to that.
A person use this for wrong thing, that
means he's not being grateful.
The eyes, not being grateful. If you walk
the wrong place, it's not being grateful for
that. If you think,
you know, about how to commit sin and
plan sins, not being grateful for this mind.
If the heart is not loving what Allah
doesn't like, a person might be
grateful to the fuad, the feeling. Allah created
the heart to love him, not to love
what Allah dislike.
That what it is.
And that's why I'm gonna offer
a few advice to myself and you
before you leave the Jum'ah, the practical aspect
of this.
Because my brothers and sisters, as I said,
was Jum'ah.
As I said last,
there's many
people
today,
they seek
those self improvement books
that deal with the happiness.
You go and buy them
from all those bookstores,
which is they have a lot of wisdom,
human wisdom,
but Allah books,
Allah book the Quran,
the teaching of the prophet Muhammad had
the wisdom.
For if you and I begin with that,
and we determine
to live our life according to what Allah
says and who is prophet
Muhammad, you'll see a lot of changing of
of our attitude.
We become more content, more satisfied with life.
I ask
Allah
that understanding
of the teaching of the Quran and following
of the prophet
Whoever
become grateful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for
the Allah has given them, that a person
have
really kept the name inshallah.
And whoever is not,
then a person
have taken the risk
to losing what Allah has given them.
I would like to advise myself and you
the following.
1st,
that we
as individual or a family
become aware of the favors Allah upon us
by
thanking Allah
for simple things
that we take it for granted. For example,
if you have not eaten lunch,
when I say this person say,
a person have to be mindful of it.
Because my brothers and sisters, this moment, there
are some people laying down in bed in
the hospital.
They cannot eat.
It's
coroutine or not. It's true.
Am I correct?
You and I have the chance to eat.
If you sleep tonight,
yes, many people cannot sleep tonight.
If you get up in the morning,
that many people have not make it to
next day.
Last night, there's some people have died
somewhere.
They didn't see this day.
Happiness about enjoying what we have
rather than we thinking about what we don't
have.
Other than if you do that, the train
will the life would pass like a fast
train before our eyes. Before we know it,
we are gone from this life.
We have to enjoy what we have.
Therefore,
the second thing
is that none of us should take their
family for granted.
If you are husband, if you are a
wife, if you are
a parents, if you are a child sitting
in this room today,
please we should not take our family for
granted.
Said, no one become grateful to Allah unless
he or she become grateful to people.
Don't please do not take that for granted
because really that's what it is. That sometimes
we don't realize
the closest people to us that whom we
have to love the most is the people
that will neglect the most.
The third,
when we become grateful to Allah for what
he has given us,
jealousy will go away from our heart.
We'll not become jealous and envious to people.
I want the good things to go from
him so I become happy. No, why?
I should enjoy what I have, I make
dua for that person.
Whenever you see a person whenever we see
a person has bounties of Allah, favor of
Allah, we're talking material world, make dua for
them, say Allah give them more and give
me.
But we don't wish ill for them.
And that
cleaning of the heart from envious and jealousy
will prevent
grudge
and hatred.
And if we prevent envies
and hatred and grudge,
we'll have a happy heart,
a happy heart that is sleep every night
clean,
that wish the best for all people,
for all humanity.
No one become a true believer unless he
or she love for the others,
who love for themselves. Imam al Nawi said
this
all humanity.
It's not necessary just to follow Muslim. Your
love for the fallen human being what you
love for yourself.
That is happiness.
And that, by the way, study shows,
and this is my last point,
that one of the means of happiness
is to do something nice to somebody else.
Seriously,
if you want to live fulfilling life,
find ways and means to do, they call.
Is the word
also?
Arabic word,
serving others.
By serving others,
we become satisfied.
When Abu Abu Huraira
said, yeah Rasulullah, I'm hungry. Actually he didn't
say like that.
He
was so hungry, we say like
extreme hunger.
He want to eat something,
but he was
shy to ask people directly, give me food.
Of
the explanation of an eye in the Quran,
what gives him the explanation and went.
He didn't give he said go with me
home. He didn't realize that he's hungry.
He asked, you know, you ask.
He didn't give him that. He didn't say
go home with me. But Rasulullah looked at
him. He saw the hunger in his face.
Before he asked Rasulullah any questions, he said,
come with me.
Come.
He come go home.
He's so hungry.
He wants something to eat.
Asked his wife, what do you have? You
have food at home?
There's no biryani,
no
but
there was milk.
She said there's a pot of milk.
Somebody just gave it to us.
To Abu Huraira,
Abu Huraira, go and call people of Sufa.
You know people of Sufa, the poorest people
of Madinah.
Go and call all of them.
I said,
I'm so hungry. And the prophet asked me
to go and get other people.
What this pot of milk gonna do?
Like, he think like, what's gonna he go
and brought all of them. He said, come
on.
There's something for you. And the warrior of
the law
said, Arsua salam ordered him to serve them.
The man is hungry.
He has a milk in his hand. He
said,
serve them.
Serve the people.
What I said to give to the first
person,
how much milk left on this?
They got the first Sahabi
tank,
and he give it to.
But when I look at it, the America's
still there, the second person, third person, and
then all of them drank.
And by the way, there's another discussion. I'm
not gonna get out of the whole of
it. But, really, immune system being developed
of how people get used to live their
life.
The next person,
until all of them dragged them from their
path.
Now they turn to
said, I looked at the milk and nothing
as if nothing no one have
drank it.
It's still subhanallah.
Remember last time I said what?
My sustenance no one can take it.
He being grateful to Allah
give it people. Allah He
drank,
He put it down. Said drink more. He
drank, put it down. He said drink more.
Then they said
I'm full. There's no space for this milk.
I'm full. That's it. I can can do
it then.
Then took the rest of and drank the
rest of the milk.
My brothers and sister,
serving others
also bring happiness.
Even if you are in need,
try to provide to other way through
Allah make us be aware of
his and share his so we live a
happy life and enjoy this life and life
to come.